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Author: Alissa Nexus
last update publish date: 2026-06-25 22:19:29

DANTE

Dark streaks. What the fuck is that? I moved toward it and at first I thought it was oil because the ground was filthy enough for it, but the closer I got, the more the color changed under the fading light. Too dark in some places. Brown-red in others.

Blood… dried up ones.

“Rafael,” I called.

Both of them came over.

Enzo crouched beside me and stared at the streaks. “Well,” he said softly. “That’s charming.”

The trail disappeared beneath what looked like a concrete slab shoved awkwardly
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  • The Wife He Never Married   132

    JUNEJanice stared at the photograph for another few seconds then she slowly shook her head. “No, I don’t remember this.” The word landed softly.I swallowed. “That’s okay,” I replied with a smile… at least I tried to smile. I turned the page and in that picture was my parents, young and happy. My mother was laughing while my father looked at her, I remembered that picture and I remembered thinking they looked like they belonged together.“This was taken before I started school,” I said. “Dad said you hated taking pictures.”Janice looked at the photograph. “You look happy.”“We were,” I replied before turning to another page.There I was between them, my mother’s hand rested on my shoulder and my father’s arm was around both of us. For years, that picture had been one of the hardest things for me to look at, now I couldn’t stop staring at it.“My mother used to cook all the time,” I whispered. “She loved this particular herbal chicken soup but I hated it.” A smile pulled at my lips.

  • The Wife He Never Married   131

    JUNEThe door closed behind Dante and for a moment, I simply stood there because I felt like I couldn’t move. My fingers were curled tightly against each other, but they wouldn’t stop shaking and I looked down at them as though they belonged to somebody else.My mother was on the other side of that door, the word kept repeating inside my head, but it still didn’t feel real because I had grown up with an empty space where she should have been and I had learned how to live around it, how to carry it without letting it consume every part of me but now now she was here, close enough that I could reach out and touch her.I looked at the chair across from me, knowing that that was where she would sit and that was where I was going to meet the woman I had spent years missing.My chest tightened. What am I supposed to say to her? Hi, Mom? Where have you been? Why didn’t you come home? Do you remember me?The questions crowded my mind until I couldn’t tell which one hurt the most, the door ope

  • The Wife He Never Married   130

    DANTEJune held up one dress. “No,” she muttered to herself then threw it onto the bed, picked up another. “No.” Another, then she stared at herself in the mirror.I smiled. “You’ve changed four times.”She looked at me through the mirror. “I need to look right.”“You look right.”She turned. “You don’t understand.”“I do understand.”“No, you don’t.” She walked toward the wardrobe again. “Do you think I should wear something she would remember?”I didn’t answer but she pulled out another outfit. “Do you think she’ll remember my voice?” Another pause. “Or the way we used to relate?”I felt something tighten inside my chest then she looked at me and the hope in her eyes broke something in me but I didn’t let it show, I pushed away from the door and walked toward her.“You don’t have to become someone she remembers.” Her eyes shimmered. “You just have to be you.”She stared at me for several seconds then she nodded, she chose something simple, something that felt like her. Afterward, sh

  • The Wife He Never Married   129

    DANTEI didn’t like the arrangement, not one bit even though the doctors recommending that June meet her mother made sense. If Janice was recovering from amnesia, then of course there would be a point where they would want her family around her.What didn’t make sense was the timing since the wedding had already been postponed. Angelo had spent days making it clear that he wanted the wedding delayed, and suddenly, the moment June agreed to meet her mother, everything became easy.Angelo agreed, the lawyer called and everything lined up perfectly. I hated perfect because it was usually what people called something before they discovered the knife hidden underneath it.But June… something about her was different this morning. I watched her sitting at the kitchen island, her fingers wrapped around her coffee cup as she listened to everyone talk.She smiled and it wasn’t the careful smile she had been wearing since finding out her mother was alive, this one was real, warm and beautiful.

  • The Wife He Never Married   128

    JUNEHe lifted my chin. “No baby, don’t apologize. I understand how you’re feeling,” he let out and the simplicity of his words made my throat tighten, he always seemed to understand before I finished explaining. “We’ve been through a lot,” he murmured. “But this is different.” I nodded. “It’s the most sensitive so I’m going to try to take things slow and easy. And that is why I don’t want to bombard you with a lot of information at once.”He took my hand and led me toward one of the chairs, I sat and he remained beside me.“Okay, let me give you the full gist on what’s happening and what we have discovered,” he let out. “And I think they’re going to manipulate us.”“Because of my mother?”“Yes, it is,” he answered honestly. My stomach twisted and everything suddenly clicked that Angelo didn’t need to convince Dante, he was trying to convince me and every decision they were going to make was going to depend on me and how I took it. My eyes dropped to our intertwined hands knowing n

  • The Wife He Never Married   127

    JUNEThe first thing I noticed when I woke up was the silence, my hand moved across the mattress before my eyes were even fully open, searching instinctively for the warmth beside me but I got nothing. Dante was already gone as always and usually, waking up to an empty side of the bed would have bothered me, this morning, it didn’t.I lay there for a few seconds, staring at the ceiling because there was no crushing weight in my chest, no tear-soaked pillow beneath my cheek, no memory of my mother standing across the room with a stranger’s eyes and no image of her hand resting over the stomach that carried another man’s child.For the first time in what felt like forever, my mind was quiet and I felt peaceful like I had not spent the night crying. I slowly pushed myself upright and realized that the room was now washed in pale morning light, it slipped through the curtains in thin golden lines, settling across the sheets and the floor. I sat there for another moment, rubbing my face

  • The Wife He Never Married   2

    JUNEFate had to be mocking me. There was no other explanation for this kind of cruelty.My father had warned me from the very beginning, and somehow that made everything hurt worse.I gripped the steering wheel so tightly my fingers ached while tears blurred the road ahead of me.I could still hea

  • The Wife He Never Married   1

    JUNEThe first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Rick.He was asleep on his stomach, one arm stretched across my side of the bed like even in sleep he expected to find me there. Morning light spilled through the curtains, soft gold sliding over his bare shoulders, over the silver strands beginn

  • The Wife He Never Married   5

    DANTE“Send me everything you can find out on what Angelo has been up to lately. I want to know what that fucker plans to do next before he does it.” I whispered to Enzo as he took a seat next to me.He nodded, pouring himself a drink and I lifted a brow.“Are you…”“Listening? Of course, I am boss

  • The Wife He Never Married   4

    JUNEWhen I returned home, my father didn’t say I told you so and that alone nearly broke me again. The moment I stepped through the gates with my suitcase in hand, he walked toward me without hesitation and pulled me into his arms.I cried like something inside me had finally shattered beyond repa

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